2012 Display ideas :)

[2250Lights]

To start, this is my second year using Light-O-Rama! A very mere 32 channels... :/ But it keeps the cars coming! I am planning one or two new controllers this year (two new controllers would be a little past a miracle on a college student's "budget") but I keep hoping. And actually I have set a plan for the use of one new controller. I will be adding MERRY CHRISTMAS (using templates from Lights4Christ.com) on my roof; 13 channels, alternating red and green letters (still only one color per letter). I was lucky enough to purchase 6 strands of Gemmy's Pure White LED Light Show, which will cover the front roofline (1 channel). One channel for icicles, so that I can 'bounce' my house and probably one channel for Multicolor incandecents lining the roof.

So actually, I am looking for some imput for the second controller whether it is added 2012 or 2013:
My new controller this year went to a cool white LED mega tree (all 16 channels). For 4/4 music/tempos, 16 channels works great for spinning and what not. My question is: should I change my mega tree to 12 channels (sequencing was not as hard as anything else for a mega tree)? And then I could either add 12 channels of green (incandecent minis) OR 6 channels of red minis and 6 channels of green??
This is the most pressing question that must be answer within the next 300+ days haha.

But a second option for a 4th controller (total) would be some stars on my roof...? I have a star on the side of my house (which is non-synchronized); 5 feet tall, wooden (suprisingly light) with 48 clear C9's. What I would want to do, would be to add 5, six-foot growing stars (a star inside a star inside a star) Onein the middle of my roof, and one in each corner. As mentioned all of the stars would be the same size, most likely alternating colors and order between each growing star, and in a very uniform pattern.

Any input on anything mentioned would be very greatly appreciated!! Thank you, and I wish all of you a Happy New Year

[l0chte]

Can you explain what you mean by "Bounce"? I think that is what I'm planning on doing to.. I found a top of Icicle lights at goodwill in perfect shape and am already getting started on next year!

[2250Lights]

I like the videos on your website! I've seen some videos, either on here or just YouTube, of houses using C-9's to line their roof and then quickly fade/jump to the same color icicle lights. It looks like the roof of the house is "bouncing" with the heavy beats of the music. I'll keep looking for a video or two for reference.

What size and how did you make your radio station sign, to tell people what channel to listen to? Thanks,
Clint

[l0chte]

Thanks! That's what I thought about doing with white lights. I saw a "Behind the scenes" of someone doing it inside there basement I think on youtube. Looked really cool. The sign is a corn brand sign that farmer put out by corn to say what brand it is. Used a screwdriver to poke holes thru the size of incans and then used 1 Red Strand and 2 green strands in the holes. Looks good, going to make another for next year so its not just facing the front, but both directions.

[jstorms]

I'm not planning much more for next year, but I am planning on bouncing the house. Once everything is put away I'll dust off the bouncing lights project again.

[l0chte]

Found it:

This is what I plan to do with White Incans on top and Incan Icicles. I think this is what "bounce" means.

While going thru the pile of lights I got from a Goodwill the other day I found 3 strands of Icicles that are shorter and 3 that are longer, So Now I'm thinking what If I doubled it..
1st layer, just white normal strand,
2nd layer, shorter icicles
3rd layer, longer icicles

It would get brighter and longer each time...

[roknjohn]

I achieved the bounce effect with just two sets of icicles, one hung 6-8 inches lower than the other. I have a white string around the shingle edge as well, but IMO it distracted from the effect. It took 15 sets of icicles to cover my eaves, so 30 sets were needed for both rows. I had to use 4 channels to power these, since 15 sets pull 9 amps.

[2250Lights]

So, would it look too strange to go from a line of clear C9's down to the icicle strings?? I already have the C9's as a static element this year, but I could see using a few strings of incans to line the roof as well which would definitely cut down a little on energy use! Thanks for the input everyone

[roknjohn]

You can see the bounce effect at 9:06 in the video link below during the Party Rock song. 2:40 has another effect, i guess like a vampire extending his fangs, rather than a roof bounce.

http://vimeo.com/34317897

[l0chte]

I LOVE your mega tree with shooting star! Internet is loading your video really slowly, I'm at around 3 minutes now so here's my questions so far:

What kind of strobes are you using in the mega tree?
How many channels/ how is your shooting star so great?
How do you cover your large trees so perfectly? On all of the small branches too...

EDIT:
Finally finished, the 9:06 looked great. I'm kinda excited about adding it next year. (This was our 1st year too, and might I say what a heck of a show you have for 1st year?) Anyways the bounce effect looks totally worth it. Just got to have enough icicles..

[roknjohn]

l0chte wrote:

What kind of strobes are you using in the mega tree?
How many channels/ how is your shooting star so great?
How do you cover your large trees so perfectly? On all of the small branches too...

I used the incan curtain strobes from AllThingsChristmasAndMore.com for about $4 a piece. I think there is 15 in the tree.

http://www.allthingschristmasandmore.com/E17-Base-8W-Strobe-Light-Incandescent-130-Flash-Minute_p_3816.html

The "shooting star" is simple 100ct mini incans wrapped around 16 pieces of 1-1/2" PVC pipe, each about 15" long. I slide these PVC sleeves over my center pole and wired them to 8 channels, which gave me about 30" segments. The actual star topper is a wire frame that I made and zip tied 3 100ct strings.

The Dogwood trees in the front were actually an after thought. I had rented a 50' man lift to help me set up my mega tree and put up the roof lights. So I decided to do the smaller one and was surprised at the outcome, so I did the larger one. The smaller one has 24 100ct incan strings from Lowe's (24watts) and the larger one has 46. It was a lot easier than you'd think. No wrapping or zip ties needed. I just started at the top and picked out a branch and laid the string on top. The buds on the dogwood grabbed onto the light string pretty good. (It's going to be tougher to get these out.) I took each string all the way to the ground (linking as many as needed, usually just 2 or 3).

[jimswinder]

2250Lights wrote:

I've seen some videos, either on here or just YouTube, of houses using C-9's to line their roof and then quickly fade/jump to the same color icicle lights. It looks like the roof of the house is "bouncing" with the heavy beats of the music. I'll keep looking for a video or two for reference.

I found I could get the "Bounce" effect with just M5's and the icicle lights....

I just put a string of M5's above the Icicle Lights...

some "raw" video of my bounce effect as seen below

you can see it on the eaves of the roof (white lights) and on the railing (red lights)
I think it looks more pronounced in the white lights...

http://vimeo.com/34338358




Attached files

[l0chte]

Wow, that display is amazing, love the arches. Thanks for the sequencing picture! I'm totally doing this one next year!

[rgardner518]

I usually end my display the weekend new years is on. But with new years ending on Tuesday, When does everyone else think they are going to "end" their displays for 2012-2013 year?

[jimswinder]

mine ended New Years Eve..

Took everything down New Years Day...

On To 2012!!!!

[rgardner518]

Mine ended yesterday. And took 75% down today. I still have all of my extension cods laying everywhere, and my corostars, plus my mega tree. But when do you think is the best take down time for 2013? With New Years on a Tuesday?

[l0chte]

ny_yankee_25 wrote:

Mine ended yesterday. And took 75% down today. I still have all of my extension cods laying everywhere, and my corostars, plus my mega tree. But when do you think is the best take down time for 2013? With New Years on a Tuesday?

Depends on the weather..

[Rick Childers]

[James George]

Weather was great here on Monday, day after New Years, so got mine down and laying in the garage until I can check some lights then will pack up for the trip to the backyard storage shed.

[l0chte]

Fridays the day... :/